How did you explore victim and violence?

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How did you explore victim and violence?

As an assessed drama piece based on “Domestic Violence”, the group I

was in explored victim and violence by using a number of explorative

strategies and drama mediums. In the play, we explored the feeling of

being a victim of violence and how a victim of violence becomes a

violator. The play that we performed was based on two key words from

the song, “Behind the Wall” by Tracy Chapman. The two words are:

victim and violence. The play’s main theme is irony.

The play revolves around two characters that used to attend school

together. One of the characters, Catherine – played by Bronwyn, had a

low status at school and was always bullied. The other character,

Kevin – played by Sean, was a bully and therefore had a higher status.

However, as time passes Kevin becomes a low status character and

Catherine evolves into a high status character. This results in the

bullied person now being the bully and one day meeting the character

who bullied her through childhood. There is also a waiter – played by

Oliver, and a waitress - played by Joelle.

The first scene was set in a modern day, British café. To make the

audience aware of the setting, a still image was used as the opening

of the play. The still image consisted of 2 chairs facing each other,

one down stage left and one up stage right. In front of each chair was

a main character. The high status character, Catherine, was placed in

front of the chair down stage left. Catherine stood in a slouchy

position and her hair a mess. This gave the audience a clue that

Catherine was of a higher status. The low status character, Kevin, was

placed in front of the chair up stage right. Kevin stood with his head

positioned towards the floor. The reason the low status character was

placed backstage was to give the audience a hint of the characters’

social status. This is because a stereotypical low status person is

more likely to blend into the background of a café than sit near the

front window to be viewed by passing pedestrians. Behind each chair,

facing down stage, was a waiter/waitress. The movements of the waiter

and waitress were performed synchronistical. This means that they both

walked to the table at the same time and both spoke at the same time.

This was used to show that the waiter and waitress were of equal

status and relevantly insignificant in the play.

The two characters of the play are complete contrasts.

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